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December home builder sentiment holds at record low 18.12.2007 |
Home builder sentiment held at a record low for a third consecutive month in December, weighed down by problems in the mortgage market and a huge supply of unsold houses, an industry group said on Monday.
The National Association of Home Builders said its preliminary NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index was unchanged at 19 in December, remaining at its lowest reading since the gauge started in January 1985.
"The low reading confirms that the problems in the housing sector continue and there is not yet light at the end of the housing tunnel," said Torsten Slok, senior economist at Deutsche Bank in New York.
"For things to improve we need to see some stabilization in the level of inventories but we are not there yet," Slok said.
The December index was in line with expectations based on a Reuters survey of economists.
Readings below 50 indicate more builders view market conditions as poor than favorable.
"Builders continue to look for signs of improvement in the ongoing mortgage market crisis that is weighing on housing and the overall economy," NAHB President Brian Catalde, a home builder from El Segundo, California, said in a statement.
The NAHB's other index components were sharply below where they stood in February, when they reached this year's peaks.
Reuters
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 December home builder sentiment holds at record low
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